Hana Vu/ How Many Times Have You Driven By EP
'It's ok to be at home/ I'm gonna keep my head down/ 'Cause if I ever see too clearly/ I'm gonna knock the lights out," Hana Vu announces on Cool (featuring fellow LA artist Satchy), the lead cut from her full-length debut EP, How Many Times Have You Driven By. From that verse alone, you can pretty much pinpoint the theme at play here: teenage angst. Fitting, then, because despite the maturity of her work, Vu is a 17-year-old singer-songwriter who's a little bit annoyed by, well, just about everything.
Prior to the release of her official debut, the pop-rock upstart spent her early-teen years making home-recorded materials which led her to score a collaboration with Willow Smith and land a recording contract with Fat Possum imprint Luminelle Recordings. On the self-produced How Many Times, the spirit and aesthetic of "bedroom pop" spread across its 10 tracks – a hefty amount for what's billed as an EP.
Apart from an ode to solitude above, Vu takes us on the journey through the mundanities of her everyday life in LA, from being sad on the subway on Crying on the Subway ("In my dreams I'm in that grey room/ In my chest I'm feeling dark blue/ Take the redline into downtown/ I'm trying to escape you) to the monotony of it all on Shallow ("These are days and days and days away/ I run alone, the fallen from today/ Don't forget me, don't forget my name/ Every day are days and days the same").
Elsewhere, we get treated to gems like 426, a gorgeous mid-tempo number paired with top-notch lyricism ("Problem solver/ What's the answer/ New solutions to issues elder/ If I go searching for better weather/ Will I love home more than I have ever?"). Breakfast Square revisits Vu's oft-employed metaphors centered around "running" and "falling": "You would run away/ Eastern sky of grey/ I'm not one to fall/ So don't call 'til you're ok."
Groove-driven Afternoon follows in the same footsteps as Cool with a guest spot by Henry Morris. Vu's vocal delivery may be gritty throughout, but here it's especially deep, weather-worn, and textured. Team finds her turning her focus towards empathy while touching upon things like aimlessness: "I know you're just like me/ Weak heart, late start… I don't wanna be just like you/ Walking around with nothing to do."
Weaving dream-pop, indie-rock with low-key hip-hop swag, How Many Times Have You Driven By paints a realistic portrait of a jaded, disaffected youth without coming across as overly belligerent. This is, for the most part, indebted to Hana Vu's maturity, the quality that shines through her songwriting and her singular voice. At only 17, she's already delivered an impressive debut that's the same league as those of established artists.
The Playlist
B5/ Plae Pen
Members of Thai pop quintet B5 have recently reunited, and, judging from their lead cut, they're back with a vengeance. Here, Ben, Mariam, Cake, Q and Tor add their own unique flavours to Yokee Playboy's lesser known track Plae Pen (Masochist). Each member (except for Tor who mainly plays the piano) shows off their vocal prowess and vocal harmonies atop the arrangement drawn from progressive rock and Queen's cult classic Bohemian Rhapsody.
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs/ Leave a Light On
UK artist Orlando Higginbottom has returned with his first new single under Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs in four years. Titled Leave a Light On, the song is a sobering piano ballad detailing that bargaining stage after a heartbreak: "It looks like you're gonna leave me/ Won't you, won't you be lonely? Don't you wanna lay/ With me always? I know you do". It's a relatively tame comeback (we're anxiously waiting for remixes), and whether this will appear on his follow-up to 2012's Trouble still yet remains to be seen.
Lizzo/ Boys
If Charli XCX's Boys is a vapid confession for male obsession, Lizzo's is an empowering, sex-positive anthem that celebrates the all-tantalising diversity of men. "I like big boys, itty bitty boys/ Mississippi boys, inner city boys… I like a big beard, I like a clean face/ I don't discriminate… From the playboys to the gay boys/ Go and slay, boys," the Minneapolis plus-sized rapper sings over retro funk grooves and industrial-grade guitar licks. In a lot of ways, the production of this comes across like a flawless hybrid of Missy Elliot's Work It and Justin Timberlake's SexyBack.
Zayn/ Me, Myself and I
Let's get something straight from the outset, the magic of Beyoncé's 2003 R&B slow jam Me, Myself and I should never be replicated simply because those who do are likely to set themselves up for failure. Case in point: the former One Direction member and his cover of the aforementioned track which is vocally anaemic at best. Also, the fact that he felt the need to replace the line "Next thing I know, I'm dealing with your three kids in my home" with "Next thing I know, I'm dealing with some problems of my own" further proves that this may not be the right material for him to cover in the first place.
Rubblebucket/ Lemonade
Made up of Kalmia Traver and Alex Toth, indie pop-dance duo Rubblebucket has just dropped their latest offering in the form of Lemonade, a follow-up to Fruity released earlier this year and 2017's If U C My Enemies EP. The song kicks off with trumpet and sneaky guitars before vocalist Traver treats us to her unique vocals on par with New Zealand pop songstress Kimbra. "Did I make you mean or were you always that way?" she inquires. "Yeah, unfortunately, I can't turn lemons into lemonade/ But I let you know how much you hurt me with a really, really long goodbye."
